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uST \ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES { D ^ U ™ 



THE SITUATION IN OUR DEALINGS WITH 
GENERAL VICTORIANIO HUERTA, AT MEXICO CITY 



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ADDRESS 

OF THE 

PRESIDENT OF THE 
UNITED STATES 



DELIVERED AT A JOINT SESSION OF THE 
TWO HOUSES OF CONGRESS 



APRIL 20, 1914 




)Lf . ^O^k^j 



APRIL 20, 1914. — Referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 
and ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 
1914 







D. OF D, 

APR 27 



^ 



>■ 



ADDRESS. 



Gentlemen of the Congress: 

It is my duty to call your attention to a situation which has arisen 
in our dealings with General Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City which 
calls for action, and to ask your advice and cooperation in acting 
upon it. On the 9th of April a paymaster of the U. S. S. Dolphin 
landed at the Iturbide Bridge landing at Tampico with a whaleboat 
and boat's crew to take off certain supplies needed by his ship, and 
while engaged in loading the boat was arrested by an officer and squad 
of men of the army of General Huerta. Neither the paymaster nor 
anyone of the boat's crew was armed. Two of the men were in the 
boat when the arrest took place and were obliged to leave it and sub- 
mit to be taken into custody, notwithstanding the fact that the boat 
carried, both at her bow and at her stern, the flag of the United States. 
The officer who made the arrest was proceeding up one of the streets 
of the town with his prisoners when met by an officer of higher 
authority, who ordered him to return to the landing and await orders; 
and within an hour and a half from the time of the arrest orders were 
received from the commander of the Huertista forces at Tampico 
for the release of the paymaster and his men. The release was fol- 
lowed by apologies from the commander and later by an expression of 
regret by General Huerta himself. General Huerta urged that mar- 
tial law obtained at the time at Tampico ; that orders had been issued 
that no one should be allowed to land at the Iturbide Bridge; and that 
our sailors had no right to land there. Our naval commanders at 
the port had not been notified of- any such prohibition; and, even if 
they had been, the only justifiable course open to the local authorities 
would have been to request the paymaster and his crew to withdraw 
and to lodge a protest with the commanding officer of the fleet. 
Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest as so serious an affront that he was 
not satisfied with the apologies offered, but demanded that the flag 
of the United States be saluted with special ceremony by the mili- 
tary commander of the port. 

The incident can not be regarded as a trivial one, especially as two 
of the men arrested were taken from the boat itself — that is to say, 
from the territory of the United States — but had it stood by itself 
it might have been attributed to the ignorance or arrogance of a 
single officer. Unfortunately, it was not an isolated case. A series 

3 



4 THE SITUATION IN OUR DEALINGS WITH MEXICO. 

of incidents have recently occurred which can not but create the 
impression that the representatives of General Huerta were willing to 
go out of then way to show disregard for the dignity and rights of this 
Government and felt perfectly safe in doing what they pleased, 
making free to show in many ways then irritation and contempt. 
A few days after the incident at Tampico an orderly from the U. S. S- 
Minnesota was arrested at Vera Cruz while ashore in uniform to obtain 
the ship's mail, and was for a time thrown into jail. An official 
dispatch from this Government to its embassy at Mexico City was 
withheld by the authorities of the telegraphic service until per- 
emptorily demanded by our charge d'affaires in person. So far as 
I can learn, such wrongs and annoyances have been suffered to occur 
only against representatives of the United States. I have heard of 
no. complaints from other Governments of similar treatment. Sub- 
sequent explanations and formal apologies did not and could not 
alter the popular impression, which it is possible it had been the object' 
of the Huertista authorities to create, that the Government of the 
United States was being singled out, and might be singled out with 
impunity, for slights and affronts in retaliation for its refusal to rec- 
ognize the pretensions of General Huerta to be regarded as the con- 
stitutional provisional President of the Republic of Mexico. 
..: The manifest danger of such a situation was that such offenses 
might grow from bad to worse until something happened of so gross 
and intolerable a sort as to lead directly and inevitably to armed 
conflict. It was necessary that the apologies of General Huerta and his 
representatives should go much further, that they should be such 
as to attract the attention of the whole population to their signifi- 
cance, and such as to impress upon General Huerta himself the necessity 
of seeing to it that no further occasion for explanations and professed 
regrets should arise. I, therefore, felt it my duty to sustain Admiral 
Mayo in the whole of his demand and to insist that the flag of the 
United States should be saluted in such a way as to indicate a new 
spirit and attitude on the part of the Huertistas. 

Such a salute General Huerta has refused, and I have come to ask 
your approval and support in the course I now purpose to pursue. 
. This Government can, I earnestly hope, in no circumstances be 
forced into war with the people of Mexico. Mexico is torn by civil 
strife. If we are to accept the tests of its own constitution, it has 
no government. General Huerta has set his power up in the City of 
Mexico, such as it is, without right and by methods for which there 
can be no justification. Only part of the country is under his con- 
trol. If armed conflict should unhappily come as a result of his 
attitude of personal resentment toward this Government, we should 
be fighting only General Huerta and those who adhere to him and < 
him their support, and our object would be only to restore to the 



THE SITUATION IN OUR DEALINGS WITH MEXICO. 5 

people of the distracted Republic the opportunity to set up again their 
own laws and their own government. 

But I earnestly hope that war is not now in question. I believe 
that I speak for the American' people when I say that. we do not 
desire to control in any degree the affairs of our sister Republic. Our 
feeling for the people of Mexico is one of deep and genuine friendship, 
and everything that we have so far done or refrained from doing has 
proceeded from our desire to help them, not to hinder or embarrass 
them. We would not wish even to exercise the good offices of friend- 
ship without their welcome and consent. The people of Mexico are 
entitled to settle their own domestic affairs in their own way, and 
we sincerely desire to respect their right. The present situation 
need have none of the grave implications of interference if we deal 
with it promptly, firmly, and wisely. 

No doubt I could do what is necessary in the circumstances to 
enforce respect for our Government without recourse to the Con- 
gress, and yet not exceed my constitutional powers as President; 
but I do not wish to act in a matter possibly of so grave consequence 
except in close conference and cooperation with both the Senate 
and House. I, therefore, come to ask your approval that I should 
use the armed forces of the United States in such ways and to such 
an extent as may be necessary to obtain from General Huerta and 
his adherents the fullest recognition of the rights and dignity of 
the United States, even amidst the distressing conditions now 
unhappily obtaining in Mexico. 

There can in what we do be no thought of aggression or of selfish 
aggrandizement. We seek to maintain the dignity and authority of 
the United States only because we wish always to keep our great 
influence unimpaired for the uses of liberty, both in the United States 
and wherever else it may be employed for the benefit of mankind. 

o 



